wildfire
a highly flammable composition, as Greek fire, difficult to extinguish when ignited, formerly used in warfare.
any large fire that spreads rapidly and is hard to extinguish.
sheet lightning, unaccompanied by thunder.
the ignis fatuus or a similar light.
Plant Pathology. a disease of tobacco and soybeans, characterized by brown, necrotic spots, each surrounded by a yellow band, on the leaves and caused by a bacterium, Pseudomonas tabaci.
Pathology Obsolete. erysipelas or some similar disease.
Origin of wildfire
1Words Nearby wildfire
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use wildfire in a sentence
When natural drought conditions already exist, in such places as Colorado, physiological drought can increase the risk of wildfires by making plants more prone to ignition.
Fish blood could hold the answer to safer de-icing solutions during snowstorms | By Monika Bleszynski/The Conversation | February 1, 2021 | Popular-ScienceResidents, fire commanders, and political leaders must switch from a mindset of preventing or controlling wildfire to learning to live with it.
What the complex math of fire modeling tells us about the future of California’s forests | Amy Nordrum | January 18, 2021 | MIT Technology ReviewIt’s possible that 2020’s temperatures in some areas might have been even higher if not for massive wildfires.
2020 and 2016 tie for the hottest years on record | Carolyn Gramling | January 14, 2021 | Science NewsThe question, of course, is why SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes covid-19, continues to spread like wildfire when so many other viruses have been crushed.
Coronavirus shutdowns have quashed nearly all other common viruses. But scientists say a rebound is coming. | Dan Hurley | January 12, 2021 | Washington PostWestern states repeatedly broke records for their largest wildfires on record.
After a record 22 billion-dollar disasters in 2020, US disaster policy needs reform | Deb Niemeier | January 8, 2021 | Quartz
Besides, victory fever had spread like wildfire throughout the Allied armies.
Anti-Korean books, magazines, and comic books are selling like wildfire.
For Top Pols In Japan Crime Doesn’t Pay, But Hate Crime Does | Jake Adelstein, Angela Erika Kubo | September 26, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTIt was late October, six weeks after the initial outbreak, and the virus was rumored to be spreading like wildfire.
The dish “took off like wildfire,” says Leong, despite there being virtually no Chinese people in the area.
‘The Search for General Tso’: The Origins of America’s Favorite Chinese Dish, General Tso’s Chicken | Marlow Stern | April 19, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThat kind of social sorting allows for larger outbreaks by “seeding a much larger wildfire,” he said.
A Fully Vaccinated Woman Contracted and Then Spread Measles. WTF? | Elizabeth Lopatto | April 15, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTSuppose that Dunsey came home the night he staked wildfire, recite the conversation between him and Godfrey.
English: Composition and Literature | W. F. (William Franklin) WebsterThe news had spread like wildfire to the studies, and the other boys came flocking in during the uproar, to join in it heartily.
Eric, or Little by Little | Frederic W. Farrar"Chinese labour," yelled a voice, and across the square swept a wildfire of booting and bawling.
The New Machiavelli | Herbert George WellsThe taste enkindled by wine, was soon fed with brandy, and spread among the native bands like a wildfire.
The Indian in his Wigwam | Henry R. SchoolcraftThe story that Reynolds Bartram had "stood up for prayers" went through Bruceton and the surrounding country like wildfire.
All He Knew | John Habberton
British Dictionary definitions for wildfire
/ (ˈwaɪldˌfaɪə) /
a highly flammable material, such as Greek fire, formerly used in warfare
a raging and uncontrollable fire
anything that is disseminated quickly (esp in the phrase spread like wildfire)
lightning without audible thunder
another name for will-o'-the-wisp
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Other Idioms and Phrases with wildfire
see spread like wildfire.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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